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IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

Production of Multiple Diamond-Based Single-Photon Sources

Stefania Castelletto, Andrew Mark Edmonds, T. Gaebel, J. R. Rabeau

Published Aug 29, 2012• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Fluorescent emitters in diamond are considered to be a valuable resource for fields such as quantum communication, quantum photonics, and biological imaging. In this paper, we report a wide range of narrow bandwidth ( ~ 1.5 nm) spectral emission lines arising from different color centers at room temperature. The defects were created by chemical vapor deposition of thin diamond films grown on silica substrates seeded with nanoparticles of diamond and nickel. These fluorescent lines also possess single or few centers photon statistics. We correlate the zero-phonon lines, observed using confocal microscopy, with previously identified nickel-related centers which have been observed in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, with a Si/Ni complex and silicon vacancy defects. We compare our findings with recent results demonstrating single-photon emission in diamond associated with nickel-related centers to clarify and summarize previous studies concerning this specific dopant. The great variety of emission lines observed in the synthesized material, mainly associated with nickel-related centers, could be an important resource for applications relying on the presence of several emitters of single photons in the same sample. Moreover, the possibility of mass production of these centers in nanodiamonds in colloidal suspension may provide an important resource for biomarking and microscopy.

DOI
10.1109/jstqe.2012.2199283

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Fluorescent emitters in diamond are considered to be a valuable resource for fields such as quantum communication, quantum photonics, and biological imaging. In this paper, we report a wide range of narrow bandwidth ( ~ 1.5 nm) spectral emission lines arising from different color centers at room temperature. The defects were created by chemical vapor deposition of thin diamond films grown on silica substrates seeded with nanoparticles of diamond and nickel. These fluorescent lines also possess single or few centers photon statistics. We correlate the zero-phonon lines, observed using confocal microscopy, with previously identified nickel-related centers which have been observed in high-pressure high-temperature diamond, with a Si/Ni complex and silicon vacancy defects. We compare our findings with recent results demonstrating single-photon emission in diamond associated with nickel-related centers to clarify and summarize previous studies concerning this specific dopant. The great variety of emission lines observed in the synthesized material, mainly associated with nickel-related centers, could be an important resource for applications relying on the presence of several emitters of single photons in the same sample. Moreover, the possibility of mass production of these centers in nanodiamonds in colloidal suspension may provide an important resource for biomarking and microscopy.
Fluorescent emitters in nanodiamonds are considered to be a valuable resource for emerging fields such as quantum communication, quantum photonics and biological imaging. In this paper we report a wide range of narrow bandwidth spectral emission lines arising from different color centers at room temperature. We associate the zero phonon lines, observed using confocal microscopy, with previously identified nickel-related centers in high pressure high temperature diamond, with a Si/Ni complex and silicon vacancy defects. In particular we show the first observation of a 850 nm emission in diamond with single photon signature, indicating the potential for diamond to harbor infrared single-photon sources. Index Terms diamond defects, single-photon emission, confocal microscopy.
Color centers in diamond are very promising candidates among the possible realizations for practical singlephoton sources because of their long-time stable emission at room temperature. The popular nitrogen-vacancy center shows single-photon emission, but within a large, phonon-broadened spectrum (≈ 100 nm), which strongly limits its applicability for quantum communication. By contrast, Ni-related centers exhibit narrow emission lines at room temperature. We present investigations on single color centers consisting of Ni and Si created by ion implantation into single crystalline IIa diamond. We use systematic variations of ion doses between 108 cm-2 and 1014 cm-2 and energies between 30 keV and 1.8MeV. The Ni-related centers show emission in the near infrared spectral range (≈ 770 nm to 787 nm) with a small line-width (≈ 3 nm FWHM). A measurement of the intensity correlation function proves single-photon emission. Saturation measurements yield a rather high saturation count rate of 77.9kcounts/s. Polarization dependent measurements indicate the presence of two orthogonal dipoles.
This thesis is focused on the production and characterization of diamond films and diamond nanoparticles containing custom colour centres. These defects intentionally created into the diamond lattice are promising candidates for single photon sources, and are becoming more important for quantum information technologies as photons can carry quantum information over long distances. With outstanding properties such as up to 80% of the photons emitted into the zero phonon line (ZPL), single photon count rates up to several Mcps under continuous excitation and a narrow ZPL at room temperature, the SiV centre has recently attracted more attention. Although different approaches for the creation of colour centres have been reported, this thesis details the creation of SiV centres by chemical vapour deposition. Colour centres are created through the incorporation of impurities during diamond growth. While Si doping can easily be achieved due to plasma etching of Si substrates or the incorporation of a Si solid source inside the reactor vacuum chamber, controlling the exact amount of Si present in the gas phase or effectively incorporated is still a handicap. Chapters five and six show comprehensive studies performed towards the creation of diamond nanoparticles with single emitters. Control over the Si content within the gas phase is achieved using silane as gas source. The subsequent milling of the diamond films hosting the SiV centres and their inclusion into a stable solution, will facilitate SiV coupling and incorporation into cavities or emission-enhancer devices.
Ultrasmall (about 10 nm), low-strain, artificially produced diamonds with an internal, active color center have substantial potential for quantum information processing and biomedical applications. Thus, it is of great importance to be able to artificially produce such diamonds. Here, we report on the high-pressure, high-temperature synthesis of such nanodiamonds about 10 nm in size and containing an optically active, single silicon-vacancy color center. Using special sample preparation technique, we were able to prepare samples containing single nanodiamonds on the surface. By correlating atomic-force microscope images and confocal optical images, we verified the presence of optically active color centers in single nanocrystals, and using second-order correlation measurements, we proved the single-photon emission statistics of these nanodiamonds. These color centers have nonblinking, spectrally narrow emission with narrow distribution of spectral width and positions of zero-phonon line, thus proving the high quality of the nanodiamonds produced.
Quantum communication and quantum metrology established a demand for an accessible solid state systems which can generate a stream of single photons on demand [1]. Although single photon emission has been demonstrated from quantum dots (QD)[1,2], single molecules [3] and nanowires [4], their practical operation is limited by the temperature or photostability. Diamond crystals, however, are the most promising platform for generation of robust, photo-stable, single photons at room temperature [5,6]. Nevertheless, out of more than 500 existing optical centers in diamond only three known centers demonstrated a clear single photon emission: the nitrogen-vacancy complex [6,7], the silicon-vacancy complex [8] and the nickel-nitrogen complex [9,10]. Recent progress in materials science and fabrication techniques of diamond color centers unveiled novel quantum emitters with photo-physical properties surpassing the current mainstream [11,12,13]. Consequently, the versatility of the diamond lattice to host various impurities which give luminescence signals lead to a dramatic discovery of ultra bright single photon emitters operating in the MHz regime [14]. These new centers, comparable with QD in terms of brightness [1], but have the tremendous advantage of their room temperature operation and photo-stability. Furthermore, it opened a new avenue to investigate essentially an unknown group of single photon emitters. A brief description of the fabrication methods and a detailed quantum optical characterization of this class of diamond emitters is the subject of this presentation. In particular we will present the photo-physical properties of a novel family of single photon emitters, most likely originated from Cr impurities within the chemical vapor deposition grown nano-diamond crystals. We concentrate on the typical emission lines in the range of 740 - 790 nm, which exhibit single photon emission with count rate in the range of 0.8-3.2 106 counts/s at the limit of infinite optical excitation power, and life time as short as 1 ns. Even more, some of the emitters exhibit a photon statistics without any photon bunching, indicating a two-level system with unitary quantum efficiency. We will also show preliminary results of a resonant excitation at 4 K. We will highlight future directions to optimize these sources and avenues to investigate the fundamental properties of these centers.